The present invention relates to a leaf spring arrangement for a motor vehicle axle.
The following discussion of related art is provided to assist the reader in understanding the advantages of the invention, and is not to be construed as an admission that this related art is prior art to this invention.
It is known in the art to equip motor vehicles with axle systems so that the wheels of the motor vehicle are resiliently supported. At standstill, static wheel loads act on the motor vehicle and are superimposed during operation of the motor vehicle with dynamic wheel loads.
Different axle concepts are known, for example a suspended rigid axle or independent wheel suspensions, in order to realize the desired suspension of the motor vehicle. In principle, the wheel is acted upon by a suspension and an attenuation to absorb the static and dynamic wheel loads. Mechanical springs are especially used hereby and may be designed, for example, as round wire springs or also as leaf springs. In order for the leaf springs to be coupled with the motor vehicle axle components, e.g. with the motor vehicle control arms, in particular transverse control arms, it is known to provide a leaf spring at each end thereof with a mount which can be threadably engaged, for example, to a respective transverse control arm and which is typically screwed to the end of the leaf spring by a bolt received in a throughbore in the leaf spring.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional leaf spring 1 configured as transverse leaf spring 2. The transverse leaf spring 2 has a midsection 3 and two ends 4. A mount 5 is connected to the each end 4 of the transverse leaf spring by drilling a bore through the end 4 of the transverse leaf spring 2 for passage of a screw bolt 6 so as to couple the end 4 to the mount 5. The midsection 3 is further provided with attachments 7 to connect the transverse leaf spring 2 to a not-shown motor vehicle body or subframe. A mechanical drilling of the transverse leaf spring 2 in this way to realize the connection between the mount 5 and the end 4 of the leaf spring 2 adversely affects the durability and life of the leaf spring.
It would be desirable and advantageous to provide an improved leaf spring arrangement which obviates prior art shortcomings and which has a long-lasting life while yet being producible in a simple and cost-effective way and reliable in operation.